Tag: State Park

There’s a moment every year when it hits you that Spring is just around the corner. You know Winter isn’t quite over, but you feel a warmth and a smell in the air, that let’s you know Spring is near. It always feels wonderful. This year, it hit me while on a hike at the Eno River. Yes, I know I’ve written about this place before, and I can assure you I will write about it again. After this, I will have only written about 13 of the 28 miles of trails that make up the park.

For this loop, you could start at one of two parking areas – either the Pleasant Green Access or Cabe Lands Access. Full disclosure – we broke the hike up over two different trips, (with Sarah in her third trimester, 3 miles is about the limit) so we actually started at both locations. See picture below.

This is a hike I’d recommend doing anytime except on a Summer weekend. The reason being, both access points are popular parking spots for trips to the Eno River Quarry. The quarry is a popular swimming hole for high schoolers, but also families alike and can get quite crowded during summer days. Parking can be quite difficult on those days, and I’ve even paid local residents to park on their property in the past.

The hike itself has three distinct parts. The first is the western most portion of the Laurel Bluffs Trail. This is my favorite part of the hike, as it follows along a ridge a couple hundred feet from the river, providing wonderful views. The rhododendron and steep drop offs give the allusion of mountain hiking.

The next part is a loop around the Eno Quarry Trail. The Quarry was initially dug up in the 1940s to provide rock that would become interstate 85. Once the quarrying was done, it slowly filled with water over the years. As I mentioned before, it is a popular swimming destination in the summer months, but also a very nice view and unique part of the park.

The last part is known as the Cabe Lands Trail. It’s a steep trail, going down to the river, following the river a bit, and back up to connect to the Quary Trail.

We loved the chance to do some Eno hiking as Spring is beginning. With this Spring in particular we are so excited as it is a reminder at how close we are to the arrival at our first child, which increasingly can’t come soon enough. The hike also gave me a chance to play with a new camera I recently got so I can capture some quality photos and videos of our little gal or guy when they arrive!

Our quest to visit all of North Carolina’s State Parks took us to Medoc Mountain State Park this Labor Day Weekend. Neither one of us had heard of it, and we both kind of saw why once we got there. It is sort of in middle of nowhere, not near any major highways, and didn’t seem to be very popular. The only other person we saw during our time was the park ranger as we began on our hike.

There are a couple of 5 mile loops in the park and we elected to do the one that ascended Medoc “Mountain” via the Summit Loop Trail. If there was an actual summit at some point, we missed it, so certainly don’t come here expecting to see much of a view. The trails were well maintained though, and the lack of other hikers, gave it more of a secluded feel than most of the hikes we do closer to home. Guessing it’s not always like this, but on the particular day we hiked it was unbelievably humid. Also, along the trail were nickel-sized frogs and bowling-ball sized mushrooms.

Overall we enjoyed the hike, but probably not enough to rush back to this park anytime soon. Mostly because the creek was a little stagnant, and not as interesting to look at as we are used to. Our favorite part of the whole trip actually was the drive to the park, and back home, going through several small NC towns – Henderson, Warrenton, and Louisburg.

Occoneechee Mountain is a very popular hiking destination in the Triangle. While there are only a few miles of trails in this State Park, it has much to offer, including the mighty waters of the Eno and Occoneechee “Mountain” itself – which at 867 feet, boasts the title of the highest point in Orange County.

On this beautiful Saturday in August, we elected to make a full day out of hiking Occoneechee, by ending the hike at Mystery Brewery Company. We also had the fortune of having our dear friends Patrick and Marissa join us for the adventure.

Riverwalk Overlooking the Eno. Near the Starting Point

We started the hike in downtown Hillsborough, beginning on the Riverwalk, a paved trail along the Eno River. About 500 feet before the Riverwalk trail hits Eno Mountain Road, it turns to a trail, which is currently marked as “closed”. Don’t worry – we had no issues bushwhacking it through. We took Eno Mountain Road across the Eno River, and quickly made a right onto a gravel trail which led us to Occoneechee Mountain State Park. There are several hiking options once at the park. We elected to start along the Occoneechee Mountain Loop Trail, then take the Brown Elkin Knob Trail to the Cheshnut Oak Trail (with a pit stop atop Occoneechee Mountain), which hits the Occoneechee Mountain Loop Trail to finish back to where we started. Basically, this enabled us to cover a lot of ground, and still see the top of top of Occconeechee Mountain, which we would have missed had we just done the Occoneechee Mountain Loop Trail on its own. See the trail map below for specifics.

If you haven’t been to Occonneechee yet, you should. The elevation changes make it a truly unique hike in the Triangle, and the view atop Occonneechee isn’t to be missed. If you want to skip the Riverwalk part of the hike, you can make it much shorted, by just starting in the Parking area at the south area of the park.

We exited the park in the same area we started and headed back towards town via Eno Mountain Road, turning on Dimmocks Mill Road, and then Nash Street where Mystery Brewing Company’s “public house” is (you’ll pass the brewery itself on Dimmocks Mill Road, but its not open to the public).

This was probably the 4th time I’d been to Mystery Brewing Company, and each time I’ve been I’ve liked it more than the last. I was unimpressed several years ago when their offerings where limited, and mostly Belgians. They have since grown their offerings, with over a dozen options of continuously changing options available, of all types of beers (though Belgians are still their primary focus). At any given time they have a “Core Four” of four seasonally rotating drafts available, and “Novellas” which continually rotate and are often more experimental in nature. Also a couple of guest taps to boot.

Mystery Brewing Company’s Draft Offerings

Sarah and I started with a couple of “Cour Four” beers – the Lockwood’s Retreat (IPA), and Evangeline (Summer Saison). Both were quite tasty, but especially the Evangeline – their Saison’s have never let us down. As one of their guest taps they had Wicked Weed’s Pernicious IPA, which we simply couldn’t pass up for our next beer. Patrick was a little more adventurous and tried a Novella – the “Karass”, a Lime Basil Wit. It didn’t hit the mark for any of us, but I do like that they experiment, and I have no doubt someone enjoyed it immensely.

To finish out the hike, we left Mystery Brewing and headed north on Nash until we hit King Street, which we took into town, admiring the historic houses (some dating back to the 18th century) along the way. If you still have time to kill I recommend grabbing some food (and maybe even another beer or two) at The Wooden Nickel, a quaint little beer bar that is my favorite in all of the Triangle. I’ll save a post for that on another day so I have an excuse to go back there!

If you are only going to do one hike on the Eno River, this should be it.
It’s a great 4.5 mile loop showcasing some gorgeous river views, steep ridges, and the famous suspension bridge. From the Few’s Ford parking lot, start on Cox Mountain Trail, following signs to the footbridge. After crossing, take a right towards Fanny’s Ford Trail, and follow that until you hit Cox Mountain Trail, taking a right to make a full loop. You could skip the Fanny’s Ford portion to shorten the trip down by a mile, but I wouldn’t recommend it, as these are my favorite river views in the park. Definitely pack some water as the later portion of the Cox Mountain Trail passes over a surprisingly tall ridge. This is a popular trail, so expect to see people, especially the closer you are to the parking lot.

The Eno River State Park is just a few miles from Sarah and I’s house and is our favorite local place to hike. This particular trail is one of our favorites in the park. At 3 miles, its a perfect distance, spending half of its time along the river, and the other half along a ridge. The trail is well maintained, though on this particular day the bugs and spider webs were worse than usual, probably just due to the time of year. This is a particularly beautiful area of the river. Also, be sure to stop and take a look at the Dunnagan family grave plots along the northern part of the loop.